{"id":60636,"date":"2021-01-25T18:16:25","date_gmt":"2021-01-25T18:16:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2021\/01\/25\/germany-scrambles-to-offer-biden-common-ground-on-china\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T16:10:32","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T16:10:32","slug":"germany-scrambles-to-offer-biden-common-ground-on-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/global\/europe\/2021\/01\/25\/germany-scrambles-to-offer-biden-common-ground-on-china\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany scrambles to offer Biden common ground on China"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

COLOGNE, Germany \u2014 German officials are scrambling to build a common approach to China as a cornerstone of Europe-U.S. defense relations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An offer to that effect was featured in a congratulatory tweet last week by Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer aimed at newly inaugurated President Joe Biden. The \u201cNew Deal,\u201d as she called it, aims for Europe to be an \u201ceye-level partner\u201d for Washington rather than a needy protege.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On China, the tweet goes, Berlin wants a \u201ccommon agenda,\u201d adding: \u201cas long as it\u2019s compatible with our interests.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The last bit is remarkable not so much for its apparent needlessness \u2014 states naturally avoid going against their interests \u2014 but rather as a harbinger that the China angle is going to be rather complicated. Fresh off a European Union trade deal with Beijing, Berlin has clung to its mantra of compartmentalizing international relations into separate bins, like economics and national security \u2014 a stance that critics have said is naive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It remains to be seen what the touch points are with the Biden administration when it comes to China. For now, there is still something of a honeymoon phase here over having an avowed trans-Atlanticist back in the White House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s good that the German defense minister is leaning forward with an aspiration to strengthen cooperation with the new U.S. administration,\u201d said Jeffrey Rathke, president of the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, D.C. \u201cIt is also extremely important in my view that the German government engage early and substantively with the Biden administration on things related to China \u2014 not just security, though security should be part of those discussions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, he added, there is still uncertainty about where trans-Atlantic defense policy goals converge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is a more fundamental effort necessary: to reach a shared trans-Atlantic understanding of how China represents a threat or challenge to the trans-Atlantic community. We use similar rhetoric \u2014 partner, competitor, rival \u2014 to describe the different roles China plays in the world, but we don\u2019t necessarily agree on which Chinese activities fall into those three categories,\u201d Rathke said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In that sense, he argued, the security and defense field will be the lagging edge rather than the leading edge of trans-Atlantic cooperation.<\/p>\n\n\n\t